The Managerial Merry-go-round

There have been rumours of course, Clark had supposedly gone for an interview at Leicester City after they sacked Sven Goran Eriksson and had been offered the job only for Hoyle to talk Clark out of jumping ship. This maybe have resulted in Hoyle questioning Clark's commitment to Huddersfield Town and when Clark didn't outright remove himself out of the running of the Leeds United job then the trust the two men had has been broken. Of course this is just my guesswork don't take my word for it.
 
I'd like to thank Lee for his efforts, there have been some good times under his stewardship at Town who could forget his first full season in charge when we played some brilliant football and scored goals for fun. When he took over from Stan Ternent he changed the football philosophy straight away to a one of a passing, attacking game and after building his own squad for his first full season in charge the goals started to flow. The 7-1 battering of Brighton, the 6-0 hammering of Wycombe in front of the sky cameras (repeated two years later at Adams Park) and humiliating Stockport 6-0 away are a few to mention before it went all pete tong in the play-offs against Millwall. He was very unlucky to miss out on automatic last season with Town but the Achilles heal of that season continued into this - failing to beat sides lower in the table. Who could forget the 43 match unbeaten run, a football league record beating the great Nottingham Forest side of the late 1970s and one behind the "invincibles" of Arsenal's 2003/04 team.  Lee signed some great players too some of which have gone on to better things such as Anthony Pilkington and Lee Peltier. Unearthing a football gem in the form of Jordan Rhodes whilst others worthy a mention are Peter Clarke, Ian Bennett, Damien Johnson and Lee Novak.
 
There have been some downsides though; I believe he got it all wrong with his team selection and tactics in the play-off final defeat to Peterborough United last year. Clark has had the most money to spend on players of any other previous Town manager in, quite arguably, their history. The continuous overhaul of players' season after season with some just disregarded after a couple of bad performances and never seen in a Town shirt again such as Robbie Simpson, who never really got a chance, Joey Gudjonsson and Nathan Clarke. The start of this season alone he signed four central midfielders having already three on the books already and cue on a constant change this season of central midfield pairings with some of his new signings no better than we already had. He has spent quite a bit of money in his time here, some might say that is an understatement, this season alone he has probably spent around £2million and wages have gone through the roof, recent signing Kallum Higginbotham is supposedly on nearly 10 times on what he was earning at Falkirk. The Achilles heal mentioned early has continued into this season and performances have been poor and have looked no where near a side that is going for automatic promotion. I can only think of twice when we have played well this season one was at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United and the other was the first 20 minutes against Sheffield Wednesday in which we raced into a two goal lead before going on to draw 4-4. Probably the best we've played at home this season was against Preston.
 
It appears the rumours who will be the next Town manager have kicked into overdrive and it looked as though the board pushed the boat out to try and persuade Neil Warnock to return to the club. I don't believe what the Daily Mail were saying, they say we offered Warnock £1million a year to return to us. It would be unsustainable and I believe would put Town in a bad financial position if we didn't go up. Deano would not put us in that position he is not clueless about football like Barry Ruberry was. I'd have loved Warnock back but unfortunately he has picked that lot down the A62. I can see why he chose them but I bet Ken Bates promised him the land of milk and honey and don't be surprised if that relationship turns sour within the next year.
 
Yesterday the bookies has supposedly stopped taking bets on the next Town manager and it appears Oldham's Paul Dickov and former Leeds manager Simon Grayson are leading the way. Why Dickov only god knows as he has hardly pulled up any trees at Boundary Park and the style of football I've seen when he have played the Latics have not impressed me one bit. Surely yesterday's spanking at the hand of MK Dons has ruled Dickov out. To appoint Dickov would be very uninspiring and I would question why sack Clark in favour of someone who has done no better. "Larry" Grayson is a different one, he got Blackpool promoted from this league via the play-offs playing attractive football and getting the best out of such players as Robbie Williams and Keigan Parker. Some will disregard Grayson purely that he is Leeds through-and-through but he got our rivals automatic promotion albeit that they limped over the finishing line at the time. Of course his CV is not a bad one but what has been coming out of Elland Road since his sacking last month suggests that he has many similarities with Lee Clark. Grayson has been known for isolating players at a drop of a hat like Clark and has been known for criticising his own players in the media. Current and former Leeds players have been commenting that the squad under his leadership was divided.
 
Nicky Butt has been linked as a surprised contender and Eddie Newton has expressed his interest in the job. Both former Premier League players with lots of connections in the game but both are inexperienced and Town have already been down that rout with Clark. Warnock has recommend former Town goalkeeper Kevin Blackwell to the board his record hardly fills me with enthusiasm. Others such as Brian Laws, Phil Brown and Paul Tisdale have been mentioned. Personally my choices would be Mick McCarthy, Billy Davies or Dave Jones. All three are highly experienced managers. I can't see McCarthy coming but Davies and Jones have been out of work since the summer and could be interested in returning to football with Huddersfield Town. Davies' team have always been there or there abouts, Preston were twice on the brink of the Premier League but fell at the final hurdle, Davies won promotion with Derby back in 2007 and He took Notts Forest to the play-offs twice but failed to take the Tricky Trees into the Premier League and was sacked. Forest has since struggled since he was fired.
Dave Jones' record is slightly more impressive than Davies'. The Liverpudlian has won promotion with both Stockport County and Wolves, led Cardiff City to an FA Cup final and to two successive play-off finishes before leaving last summer.
 
Who ever Town choose is up to Dean Hoyle, I have complete faith in his trust and judgement to pick the right man for the job. In Dean we trust. Up the Town!